CES: Dell Says We Will Fall in Love With Adamo

Dell called a bunch of reporters to a room at the Palms hotel in Las Vegas and gave them a sneak peek at a widely rumored laptop called Adamo. It was literally just a peek; the stylish, thin notebook PC was held up briefly by a stylish, thin fashion model who goes by the single name Hollis. A small mob of photographers was allowed to snap away for a minute or two, and then the Adamo was hustled out of the room.

Associated Press

A model shows off the new luxury Dell laptop Adamo at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Friday, Jan. 9.

The company gave very few details about the device, which it vowed to ship in the first half of the year and appears to be positioned as a Dell equivalent to Apple’s MacBook Air. Adamo will “be the new luxury franchise in the Dell brand line up,” says Michael Tatelman, vice president and general manager for sales and marketing in the company’s consumer group.

Adamo means “to fall in love with,” Tatelman says, predicting that consumers will do just that when they see the precision craftsmanship of the product. No pricing was given.

Asked if the current environment was the right one for introducing a luxury brand, Tatelman countered that Adamo is not all Dell is planning. The company also showed off a stylish new model in its line of Netbooks, the hot low-end segment of the market.

Dell’s Mini 10, as it plans to call the product, comes with a multi-touch trackpad that responds to gestures–putting down three fingers, for example, will take a user to their Web home page. No specific pricing was given for the netbook, either, though Tatelman said it would fall in the sweet spot of the category, which tends to range from $300 to $500.

The third new product of note in Dell’s Consumer Electronics Show press conference was a small portable photo printer, a breed of accessory that has become popular lately. Again, no pricing was given.